Improvement of ride quality for a wheel loader with semi-active cab isolation system via fuzzy self tuning of PID controller

Improving driver ride comfort of a wheel loader is important to avoid potential health hazards from the whole-body vibration. A fuzzy self-tuning of PID controller is designed to control the damping coefficient of Semi-active cab isolation system (SCIS) for a wheel loader. A dynamic model of a wheel loader is establish under survey conditions for analysis and evaluation. The r.m.s acceleration responses of the vertical driver's seat and pitch angle of vehicle body according to ISO2631-1 (1997-E) are chosen as objective functions. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is analyzed through simulations involving excitations for a random road profile in time domain. The proposed SCIS is simulated and analyzed by Matlab/Simulink software in comparison with a passive cab isolation system (PCIS) under survey conditions. The achieved results indicate that ride comfort effectiveness of a wheel loader with SCIS is better than PCIS under survey conditions. In addition, the study results are the initial basis for optimizing controller parameters.